An 86-year-old La Pine man charged with murdering his wife is likely pretending to suffer from hallucinations and other mental impairments, according to a neurologist who testified Friday at the trial of Lawrence Loeffler.

Loeffler, 86, is accused of fatally shooting wife Betty Jane Loeffler, 83, at their home in January.

On Friday, the third day of the trial, jurors heard testimony from doctors, neighbors, a Deschutes County sheriff’s detective and Betty Jane Loeffler’s daughter.

Dr. Michael Bell, a neurologist who examined Loeffler at the county jail in February, said jail personnel described Loeffler as detached, often lying down with his eyes closed and not responding to those around them. Bell said that during his meeting with Loeffler, he was slow to respond to questions and claimed to have seen hyenas on his back porch, among other hallucinations.

Bell said Loeffler seemed confused as to the day, month and year, but performed well in tests performed to measure his mental acuity, including one in which he was asked to repeat a sequence of numbers. Loeffler’s performance on the tests suggested a level of focus incompatible with dementia or delirium.

An MRI scan located a small cyst in Loeffler’s skull that was not putting pressure on his brain and was unlikely to impact his mental state, Bell said. An EEG test showed normal brain function and not the slowed-down brain activity typically found in delirium patients.

The evidence, Bell said, suggested Loeffler’s behavior at the jail and claims of hallucinations were “a performance.”

“Clinically, I think malingering is quite probable, but there’s no blood test or way to sort that out other than common sense,” he said.

The Loefflers’ neighbors, Jim and Linda Davenport, testified they never saw Loeffler mistreat his wife, but he clearly viewed himself as being in charge of their household.

Jim Davenport said that when he’d visit Loeffler on his back porch, Loeffler would often shout orders to his wife like, “Girl, go get him something cold to drink.”

Linda Davenport told a story about giving Loeffler an easy chair. He’d planned to sleep in it as his health problems prevented him from lying down, but when he found the fabric irritating to his skin, Loeffler wanted to give it back. Linda Davenport said she and her husband suggested Betty Loeffler might like the chair, but Loeffler rejected the idea and insisted on returning it.

Holly Heimbruch, Betty Loeffler’s daughter from a prior marriage, said she called her mother nearly every day over the last 10 years.

She said she often called early in the morning before Loeffler was awake, as he required her calls be heard over a speakerphone so he could know what was being said. Loeffler told investigators he killed his wife because he believed she and Heimbruch were plotting to kill him.

Loeffler is “somewhat of a negative person” and extremely demanding, Heimbruch said, but her mother bent to his will out of a sense of loyalty. Loeffler routinely criticized how she built fires in the wood stove that heated their home, and would insist on going out to a restaurant he liked but regularly made his wife sick.

As Heimbruch testified about a dispute between Loeffler and his son — the son had supposedly called to tell his father he wouldn’t be able to call him on his birthday, upsetting Loeffler — Loeffler leaned toward his attorneys and said, “She’s a pathological liar.”

When Loeffler was admitted to a nursing facility following a gall bladder surgery in December 2012, Heimbruch invited her mother to come stay with her in California. She declined the offer, telling her daughter she’d prefer to stay home and experience some “peace and quiet.” Heimbruch said her mother was looking forward to cooking what she wanted to cook and choosing what to watch on TV during Loeffler’s recuperation, and was let down when he insisted on coming home after just over a week at the facility.

“She never got to do the things she wanted to do,” Heimbruch said. “It was always about what was comfortable and right for him.”

Loeffler’s trial resumes on Tuesday.